France's highest court will on Tuesday rule on the admissibility of leaked wiretapped conversations which led to ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy being charged with corruption and influence-peddling.
The highly-anticipated ruling comes as Sarkozy is set to launch himself into a campaign to win back his former office in elections next year, a bid already blighted by several legal woes.
Sarkozy became the first former head of state to be taken into custody when he was charged with corruption, influence peddling and violation of legal secrecy in July 2014.
He is accused of conspiring with his lawyer to give a magistrate a lucrative job in exchange for inside information on yet another corruption probe against him.
Investigators first bugged his phones over allegations that he accepted illicit payments from L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt for his 2007 presidential campaign, much of it in cash-filled envelopes.
He was cleared in 2013 of taking advantage of the elderly woman while she was too frail to understand what she was doing.
But during the investigation, fresh allegations surfaced that he had discussed the possibility of giving a magistrate from a top appeals court, Gilbert Azibert, a juicy job in Monaco in return for information on the Bettencourt case.
The magistrate, Gilbert Azibert, did not get the posting but has also been charged along with Sarkozy's lawyer Thierry Herzog.
The former president's legal team has attempted to suppress the recordings, saying they were a breach of lawyer-client privacy rules.
The Paris appeals court ruled in May last year that the recordings could be used as evidence, and Sarkozy's legal team took the case to the Court of Cassation, France's court of last resort.
If the court rules that the recordings are admissable, investigating judges will decide in the coming months whether or not to take the case to trial.
A court appearance would strike a fresh blow to Sarkozy who is struggling in the polls against other conservative rivals to win the presidential nomination for his party, the Republicans.
Sarkozy was also charged, in February, with illegal funding of his failed presidential campaign in 2012, when he lost to the current French leader Francois Hollande.
France’s highest court will on Tuesday rule on the admissibility of leaked wiretapped conversations which led to ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy being charged with corruption and influence-peddling.
The highly-anticipated ruling comes as Sarkozy is set to launch himself into a campaign to win back his former office in elections next year, a bid already blighted by several legal woes.
Sarkozy became the first former head of state to be taken into custody when he was charged with corruption, influence peddling and violation of legal secrecy in July 2014.
He is accused of conspiring with his lawyer to give a magistrate a lucrative job in exchange for inside information on yet another corruption probe against him.
Investigators first bugged his phones over allegations that he accepted illicit payments from L’Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt for his 2007 presidential campaign, much of it in cash-filled envelopes.
He was cleared in 2013 of taking advantage of the elderly woman while she was too frail to understand what she was doing.
But during the investigation, fresh allegations surfaced that he had discussed the possibility of giving a magistrate from a top appeals court, Gilbert Azibert, a juicy job in Monaco in return for information on the Bettencourt case.
The magistrate, Gilbert Azibert, did not get the posting but has also been charged along with Sarkozy’s lawyer Thierry Herzog.
The former president’s legal team has attempted to suppress the recordings, saying they were a breach of lawyer-client privacy rules.
The Paris appeals court ruled in May last year that the recordings could be used as evidence, and Sarkozy’s legal team took the case to the Court of Cassation, France’s court of last resort.
If the court rules that the recordings are admissable, investigating judges will decide in the coming months whether or not to take the case to trial.
A court appearance would strike a fresh blow to Sarkozy who is struggling in the polls against other conservative rivals to win the presidential nomination for his party, the Republicans.
Sarkozy was also charged, in February, with illegal funding of his failed presidential campaign in 2012, when he lost to the current French leader Francois Hollande.
